Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Ishion Hutchinson is the author of Far District, a debut collection that received the 2011 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. Of Far District, Yusef Komunyakaa writes: “Not only does this collection travel through an abiding language and far reaching imagery, but it also transports the reader to a complex psychological terrain through a basic honesty and truthfulness.” Hutchinson, who earned his PhD from the University of Utah, teaches at Cornell University.

Born in Minsk, Belarus, Valzhyna Mort made her American debut in 2008 with the collectionFactory of Tears, translated into English by Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright and poet Franz Wright. Of Collected Body, her first book written in English, the Library Journal writes: “Mort is a fireball . . . personal, political, and passionate.” Her awards include the 2005 Crystal Vilenica award in Slovenia, the 2008 Hubert Burda Prize for poetry in Germany, and the 2010 Lannan Literary Fellowship. Mort is a 2011 graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at American University.